Use and replacement of carpeting generates nearly 4 billion pounds of waste added to landfills annually. The large and increasing volumes of carpet waste is a significant industrial and environmental concern. However, major obstacles prevent achieving economical recycling of carpet. Current methods employ mechanical shearing to remove the backing from carpet fibers—a technique that may be labor intensive, time-consuming, and costly. Polymeric fibers, such as carpet fibers, may include undesirable coatings. For example, coatings may include inks, colorants, adhesives, and the like, e.g., adhesives binding such fibers to backing materials. It is desirable to process polymeric fibers to remove undesired coatings prior to further uses of the fibers, such as recycled feedstocks for remanufactured carpeting.
The present application appreciates that removing coatings and backings from carpet materials may be a challenging endeavor.